Readers Respond: Special holiday traditions we celebrate in our family.

Responses: 3

It's the special holiday traditions that are unique to our families and few others, that create our sense of identity and belonging. It's those special rituals, foods, or holidays that we share only with those to whom we feel most close that give us that warm feeling of family. Some of these traditions are tied to holidays that are celebrated by everyone, with our own personal spin put on it. Some holiday celebrations are uniquely our own.

Christmas traditions

Well, we have several traditions for Christmas (Thanksgiving is a tough holiday for us as my Dad passed away on Thanksgiving Day 3 years ago unexpectedly). We start the day with a cup of home-made hot cocoa, open our stockings at one time, and then crack nuts for a while as we chatter. And instead of a traditional sit down dinner, we serve a day long buffet of finger foods--everything from party spins and pigs-in-a-blanket to veggie trays and diced fruit. We also go on treasure hunts. This was Dad's thing mostly, but we keep it alive. We hide gifts around the house on Christmas Eve, then place "clues" in each others' stockings, or tape them to related gifts, enabling each other to hunt for little gifts...often hiding things in the freezer, or the china cabinet, or hanging on the tree somewhere. Another tradition is singing the story of Christmas as told in the Bible in Luke 2:1-20. We have many other traditions, but these are the ones I most remember and enjoy still as an adult.

—musicmissionary

Share Your Traditions

My mother loved traditions & her favorite one was on the morning of the first frost of the Fall/Winter season, as little children, we would find a special breakfast waiting for us when we got up on that cold morning. Our mother would bake homemade biscuits, fry bacon & make gravy in the bacon drippings adding chopped/drained tomatoes to the gravy. She would give us hot biscuits, bacon and the gravy over the biscuits. As little kids, we would rush to the kitchen windows to look out & to see the first frost on the ground. Our mother called the gravy "Will Do Gravy"....."Will Do You Good On This First Frosty Day"......

—Guest Virginia

Just a Little Snip

Tecnically,not a 'holiday tradition,' but on the lst day of March my mother always took a tiny snip of hair from each of us. She explained that Spring starts in March and everything starts to grow, so cutting a little snip of hair would make your hair grow better all year! I did the same with my children. Did it work? I can't say, but tradition is tradition and I continue to do it!